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Social Progress and the Authoritarian Challenge to Democracy Social Progress and the Authoritarian Challenge to Democracy examines the authoritarian challenge to present-day democracy through a framing of social progress theory and the idea of the social contract. Building on the author’s previous work, this book discusses whether social progress is linear and on a continual upward trajectory to human betterment, or if there are peaks and troughs along the way. More importantly, it questions that, if social progress exists, is it compatible with social and environmental sustainability? At the outset, the book introduces the concepts of social contract theory and the idea of human social progress, long considered to be settled conditions, now ripe for further examination. Each chapter carefully analyses the contemporary struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, using examples from the USA as a foundation to discuss and compare democracies from around the world encountering the pressures of rising authoritarianism, including anti-immigration, xenophobia, and anti-institutionalism. It argues that if the climate crisis is to be urgently addressed as required, the rise in authoritarian thinking, with its focus on maintaining power and the creation of individual wealth, presents a challenge to both our societal foundations and environmental sustainability. Highlighting and analysing topics of critical importance to today’s society, this book will have widespread appeal to academics, researchers, and postgraduate students throughout the social sciences, including sociology, political science, philosophy, environmental sustainability, and development studies. Donald G. Reid is University Professor Emeritus in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) at the University of Guelph in Canada. He is an international scholar whose work focuses on sustainable development, social planning, poverty, community development, leisure, and tourism. His previous books are Social Policy and Planning for the 21st Century: In Search of the Next Great Social Transformation (Routledge, 2016) and A New World-System: From Chaos to Sustainability (Routledge, 2020). Routledge Studies in Sustainable Development This series uniquely brings together original and cutting-edge research on sustainable development. The books in this series tackle difficult and important issues in sustainable development including: values and ethics; sustainability in higher education; climate compatible development; resilience; capitalism and de-growth; sustainable urban development; gender and participation; and well-being. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, the series promotes inter- disciplinary research for an international readership. The series was recommended in the Guardian’s suggested reads on development and the environment. Beyond the Blue Economy Creative Industries and Sustainable Development in Small Island Developing States Peter Rudge The Politics of the Sustainable Development Goals Legitimacy, Responsibility, and Accountability Magdalena Bexell and Kristina Jönsson Ecological Limits of Development Living with the Sustainable Development Goals Kaitlin Kish and Stephen Quilley Learning Strategies for Sustainable Organisations Bryan Hopkins Social Progress and the Authoritarian Challenge to Democracy Donald G. Reid For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Routledge-Studies-in-Sustainable-Development/book-series/RSSD Social Progress and the Authoritarian Challenge to Democracy Donald G. Reid First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Donald G. Reid The right of Donald G. Reid to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-032-25908-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-26087-7 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-28646-2 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003286462 Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC This book is dedicated to Roman Contents Acknowledgements viii Preface ix 1 The Basis of Human Culture 1 2 The Social Contract: The Beginning of Civilization? 25 3 Social Progress and Change Throughout Human History 46 4 The Upward Trajectory of Social Progress 71 5 The Ideological Struggle 113 6 Achieving Meaning in Life 158 7 Reconstructing the Social Contract and the Idea of Social Progress 180 Postscript 220 Index 221 Acknowledgements A number of people contributed to this book in many ways. First and fore- most, I want to thank Patricia MacPherson, my life partner, not only for her support during the writing of this book but also for the time-consuming energy she dedicated to editing the manuscript. Patricia spent many hours going through the manuscript more than once. Certainly, this book is a result of several years of discussion with graduate students who debated various issues some of which wound up in the manuscript. I thank them for their inspiration. Preface The concept of sustainability has become almost exclusively associated with preserving the natural environment. Sustainability has been emphasized when speaking specifically about climate change and global warming. Given the present conditions in the world today, it is now necessary to expand its use when considering the present problems facing humanity. We must understand that the dangerous global warming condition we have created is now a social phenomenon as much as it is a physical condition, and its recla- mation will be found in changing the architecture of the social contract and not through the discovery of some magic technological bullet or by altering the present social system at the margins. Humans have created global warming through the construction and implementation of a determined approach to life, including the capitalist economy, and its deteriorating condition can only be remedied through social policy and collective action. Up to the year 2000, we might have been able to rectify global warming through micro changes such as the implementation of a carbon tax, but we are well beyond that point now and we must look to changing the macro social and political system on which the world operates in order to address the crisis before us. The emergency we now face in both the environment and the social structure is a result of the misguided values that guide our social system particularly the ‘growth at all costs’ mentality perpetrated by the predatory corporate capitalist system. This macro system dominates in all regions of the world and is working only for the few wealthy people who control it. The social contract under which we live must now transition to a new para- digm that focuses attention on sustaining the natural world and on creating a just society on which the longevity of humanity and the planet depends. This transition will need to reassess the values on which the present social contract is built and modernize the social organizational structure so it is more in harmony with the new social and environmental reality. The natural and social world is a complex and interdependent system. To think that society could address the global warming crisis as an independent and single subject in isolation to the social architecture of human society would be to display our misunderstanding of how society and humanity functions. The idea of sustainability must be applied to all areas of human